Note how the Silverback at one
point 'charges' the hide used by the cameraman. Throughout this film one thing
is quite clear: the gorillas involved know the cameramen are
there. Wild living creatures are not going to be fooled by some hide or even
people using "scent hide" sprays. The 'charge' seems almost
similar to some Sasquatch approaches to tents -they know someone is inside and
it might well just be a "brushing against the tent" to us but to Sasquatch
it could mean "Hey -I'm out here. My area."

If we accept that Sasquatch exists
then we have to accept that it has spent many thousands of years adapting to
its environment and being able to know when something is "off" in its
habitat. We have stories of bow-hunters covered from head to toe with
camouflage in elevated seats that Sasquatch approach and even sniff out. There
are even cases of Sasquatch turning to look at 'hidden' hunters.

I think those looking for
Sasquatch need to change their mindsets. Do not hide your
scent. Let any Sasquatch become familiar with it and take it from there.

If camping in a known Sasquatch
area and if it is believed one is active at the time then a trail cam or two
could be set up around the camp. Putting out bait such as fish, meat or
fruit is probably not a good idea if you are in a flimsy tent and in bear
country. Note also that bears seem attracted to the petroleum in the plastic
casing and have been known to smash trail-cams by tooth and claw. This is
rather like bears being attracted to the formaldehyde in refrigerators because
it smells ant-nest like.

In a cabin somewhere it might
work. For one thing a cabin would be
fairly secure from bear attack and, in the past, have been fairly good protection
in what have been called Sasquatch ‘attacks’.
These attacks may be the Sasquatch asserting its territory and making it
clear that it owns this particular area.

Snellgrove Lake
and the cabin located there seems to be one such case. Stone throwing, pounding on the cabin
exterior and even, when no one is there, breaking in and trashing the interior.
This raises several possible avenues for investigation and research.

Firstly, of course, there is the
idea of hiring the cabin for a year and record and monitor any possible
Sasquatch activity. A good plan of
action for a year would be needed, though it should be adaptable.
Secondly, there is evidence
gathering with no cabin base but outside of fishing season so that humans
cannot mess evidence up. In 2002 I was
asked by police wildlife crimes officers to draw up some guidelines on
gathering evidence of large, non-native cats.
The following is based on these guidelines and though it refers to large
cats it can be applied to
Sasquatch.

For over thirty years, since the sightings
of puma (Puma concolor) in the Scottish Highlands
and also Wales
which first got me involved in acting as a Police Advisor on exotic animals, there
has been a problem regarding collecting evidence.

Firstly, there are many people who
set themselves up as “Big cat investigators”.
Most of these people do not even have the basic knowledge of a
naturalist let alone the knowledge required to assess sightings of large
felids. Many cases over the years have
resulted in what has been claimed to be “irrefutable proof –hard evidence” of
what has been termed the “UK Big Cat”.
Newspaper photographs of plaster casts of paw-prints said to have come
from such animals have invariably shown claws and tell-tale features of canid
tracks.
It should be noted that there are
good photographs of casts showing details of large felid tracks.
However, these pieces of “evidence” are
treated as belonging to the alleged investigator. Many such pieces of evidence are unbelievably
destroyed once the person jumps onto another subject –I am aware of two cases
in which good large felid track plaster casts were dumped in waste bins along
with incident reports simply because the person involved had lost interest but
was not going to give his “hard work to someone else”. Also, maps, photographs, plaster casts and
much documentation has been destroyed by the families of investigators after
their deaths as “just hobby junk”.

Since the mid-1990s, many people
have jumped from investigating unidentified flying objects (UFOs) to delving
into the paranormal. When those subjects
prove boring these individuals suddenly find a new interest in “UK Big Cats”
–it tends to get them into the newspapers and even onto local television more
because it is not so fantastical as, say, UFOs.
“Cryptozoology” is the current new craze.

I have spoken to these people
quite often and it is amazing just how little they know and several even noted
that they were looking into why “Big Cats” were not seen in the Winter and had
a theory that they might hibernate!

But even those slightly more
credible individuals were unwilling to supply casts or photographic evidence
pertaining to exotic felids. The same
attitude applied: it was “their” evidence.

There were, up until 1998, some
thirty plaster casts of tracks held by private individuals that were quite
clearly diagnostic of exotic felid ranging from lynx (Lynx sp.), puma (Puma
concolor) and leopard (Panthera
pardus). These have all been clearly shown in press
photographs. Such casts would provide
good, solid evidence of exotic felids but even the offer to buy some of these
casts has been turned down. Others have
vanished along with the no-longer-interested investigators.

Hair
samples have also been shown in photographs, as have alleged scat – shockingly,
mainly held in un-gloved hands and with the holders face close enough to taint
any possible results that might exist.
Other samples shown in plastic bags are often removed to show TV or
press cameras. Some samples held for ten
years or more would be pointless to attempt DNA analysis on.

The reason
why these samples have not been forwarded to a laboratory is purely cost. Fresh samples analysed by two labs pertaining
to a felid sighted in Lincolnshire
did return Panthera pardus DNA but
this has only ever been publicised at a local level. That said, the photograph
of the alleged ‘big cat’ taken on another occasion is of nothing more than a
black domestic cat thus proving why all evidence must be clearly checked
because, despite a very good description of a leopard seen at zero feet (just
over 3 feet/90cms) from the observer the photograph taken was of a black cat
seen from a distance –no one was interested in setting up cameras and leaving
them in situ. So called ‘investigators’ with but also
without permission of the property holders camped out in tents and one police
officer told me “It was like a mini Glastonbury at times –there was even music
from radios!” and, naturally, a reclusive cat is going to be attracted to that!

Photographs
or video footage of felids can tend to suffer from distance between camera and
felid or, more often, suffer from the fact that there is nothing to compare the
size of the cat photographed/filmed to.
A couple of pieces of video footage do contain such items so we know the
cats filmed were large. In one video
clip the cats can be quite clearly seen and there are enough items in the clip
(as well as some recorded on video later) to estimate size accurately –as in the
Jagouarondi footage from Surrey.

Of course
there are photographs of livestock kills that bear all the characteristics of
large felid attacks. In some cases it
has been possible to photographs wounds on horses and ponies (such as “Bianca”
at XXXXXXXXX farm) and measure and match said wounds to large felid
dentition. Many farmers have offered to
keep sheep or other animals killed by what they claim are large cats so that
proper post mortem may be carried out to ascertain the truth. Sadly, cost and transportation of such
animals to a veterinarian willing to carry out this work has been a major
stumbling block.

Work has
also been carried out by a university on dentition marks on carcass bones that
clearly show a large felid was involved.

There has
been enough evidence over more than thirty years to conclusively prove the
existence of specific exotic cat species in the UK.
It is, sadly, of no use after so long and with so many “Big Cat
investigators” involved in in-fighting.

What is
needed is a concerted effort to not only film/photograph exotic felids but to
gather hard evidence that can be studied and from which DNA evidence can be
obtained.

Plan Of Action

Over the years certain areas have
become known large felid “hot spots”.

Certain farms are frequently visited, have
livestock killed by or just passed through by large felids. Farmers and locals have been more than
willing to have investigators keep observation of these areas. The problem is that felids have not just good
hearing and sense of smell but seem able to, via instinct, know when something
is different or that people are nearby.
These animals live and survive on their instincts and are never going to
show themselves out in the open.

We have enough evidence in the
form of reports from observers and enough has been done to establish
geographical territories and note prey animals.
This needs to be backed up by hard evidence. Hard evidence that it might be possible to
gather from known areas frequented by these felid.

MAP 1 shows a rough idea of
‘Corryn Gwall Farm’ which allows us to show how evidence might be gathered

Farms tend to be
somewhat more cluttered than this diagram shows but it does represent a number
of known, regularly frequented farms. It
is necessary to maximise the number of ways in which to gather evidence, as
shown in the next diagram.

A-G indicate locations for camera traps able to take
daytime/night time images. As these are
usually fastened to posts or other objects it is possible to move them should
it seem one particular route is used more often than others. The beauty of these cameras is that their use
is quite flexible.

A is fastened onto a tree looking up a rough
track approaching the farm. This is a
track that other wildlife may use as animals tend to use “game trails” rather
than trudge over or around obstacles in wooded areas. This camera would need to be focussed at a
point where a marker post has been left indicating various heights (30 cms, 60
cms and 90 cms) so that any animal photographed can have its size accurately
assessed.

B would be
focussed on the same track but pointing down the track so that an image of any
animal can be captured as it heads toward the farm. Again, a height gauge post would be placed on
the track.

C is, of course,
dependent upon whether there is a convenient pond from which wildlife might
drink. Damp mud could also provide
spots from which tracks might be cast.
It is always worth considering placing a drinking point if no pond
exists and to make sure the ground around it is always wet. However, this is all dependent upon the
property owner.

D would be
positioned at the front of the house looking up any entrance/approach
road. Large felids have been reported
entering/leaving farm courtyards by the main entrance. It would also show where a felid might be
heading so that a camera trap can be moved to that area.

E camera could
be trained on the pond/water source and any wall leading to it.

F could be
angled to take photographs of anything approaching/getting over a back wall or
fence. There are a large number of
reports in which felids have jumped up onto
a wall and remained there for several seconds to one minute, looking
around.

G This should be
fastened to a tree or post pointed in the direction of any livestock that is
reportedly attacked frequently.

All of these
cameras must have a height gauge post in shot but, as noted, all are flexible
in where they can be placed.

In the diagram a
short hurdle has been placed across the rough track. Something around 50-60 cms in height ought to
suffice. The idea is that deer or other
animals can walk over or get under the hurdle but that a felid moving over it
might leave hair samples behind. There
are a number of ways in which such hair can be caught. The idea of placing a string of barbed wire
across the top is ruled out as there is no wish to injure any animals.

Favoured methods
are:[1] “roughed up” wood that can snag hair, and,[2] double sided tape. Obviously, the obstacle would need to be
checked each morning and any hair collected and placed in a sealed plastic bag.

The double-sided
tape hair snag would also work on a fence or at strategic points along a
wall. Again, this would need checking
each morning. So that there is no question as to where hair has been found it
is important that, before removal, it is photographed in situ. Sterile gloves must be worn and any sample
placed in a sealable plastic bag marked with date/time collected as well as
location taken from.

The same applies
to any unidentified droppings found.
Farmers and others living in the country tend to know what a fox, deer
or badger dropping looks like but it should be a case of “unsure –secure” and a
sample collected and bagged as per hair samples. In addition to this it might be worth placing
a marker where the dropping was found for future reference and to see whether
droppings are deposited there regularly.

The importance of
photographing any trace evidence before bagging cannot be over-emphasised.

When it comes to
tracks the person checking each day or who lives on the property should be
given a guide to tracks of deer, rabbit, badgers, foxes, dogs and felids so that
they can eliminate non-felid.

The idea of a
sand-trap located on the property should be looked at. A 90 cms x 90 cms area covered with 3-4 cms
of sand (or substitute material) might solicit tracks so that it can be
assessed what is visiting the property.

It must be made
perfectly clear that even with all of the above it is not a case of evidence of
any type being obtained within a few days or even weeks. We know that certain felids wander their
territory so even when they return it is no guarantee that evidence will be
obtained. It might take a year but the
chances are improved if the owner of the property has seen the felid or has
noted where it seems to go to/come from as they do seem to be creatures of
habit at times.

The cost of game
trail cameras and DNA analysis are the big drawbacks unless a backer can be
found.

I think that
regular trail-cams can be used but, in the case of Sasquatch, need to be placed
higher up a tree (so bears cannot get to them) and angled. Any number of trail-cams are available but
even though they can take a large number of photographs the batteries will die
and once the card is full that is it –just after that last image is taken
Sasquatch could walk right in front the camera, sit down and peel a grape! So, every week or so the batteries will need
checking and the card replaced. This
adds more human contamination/smell to the area.

I believe that
the best way forward are cameras such as the Raptor Cellular camera system that
will capture a photograph and email it to you via a cellular network upon
motion-activation. The built-in camera
will capture colour photographs during the day and via a no-flash Infra Red
mode at night. All photos are stored on the included UBS Flash Drive and the battery operated
system can last several months in a remote location –I’ve heard of several
adaptions of these devices to solar energy where a solar panel is placed high
in a tree meaning that you can get endless image feed.

With cameras,
hair traps and so on, enough evidence can be gathered to satisfy most
scientific minds without the need to kill – though some claiming to be
“scientists” have stated publicly that “nothing” will convince them and a
couple have stated that even a body “does not mean there is a population.”

There is another
question that needs to be addressed.
Whether to go armed when looking for Sasquatch? We know nothing about these creatures but if
they are similar to gorillas then the chasing/charging at those who encounter
them could just be juvenile status posturing.
Gorillas will try to sort out disputes amongst their group without
violence if they can.

However, we have
seen via the work of Steenburg, et al,
that females have been encountered as well as possible family groups. If Sasquatch have learnt anything from
observing hunters it is that they kill wildlife. Humans thusly equal a possible threat to
young or females. Any creature that can
kill large wild hogs and deer with its bare hands is a potential danger to
humans if encountered in the wrong
situation or if the human involved breaches some territorial taboo.

Remember that
the Sasquatch hunter is going to be out in sometimes mountainous or hilly
forestry making a fast exit impossible. If cornered by a Sasquatch and the
animal does not back off what options are left?
I do not advocate
immediately shooting any Sasquatch because of “false charging” but I do think
that there is some form of protection –after all, Sasquatch seem to have bears
in their territories and if you attract an aggressive bear to you…

The whole point
is, however, to gather as much physical evidence as possible –there is no such
thing as “too much evidence”!

Monday, 26 December 2011

I have always said
and written,and I’ll always continue to do so,that there are quite probably
unknown sea creatures awaiting discovery by science. The “fabled” Kraaken has proven to be real –a
giant squid [Architeuthi sp.],other
“sea monsters have proven to be Ribbon Fish [genus Trachipterus] and so on. The
Coelacanth fish was thought extinct until they started getting caught and
identified by scientists in the 20th century.

It is highly
possible that many of those sea “monsters” identified and classed by Bernard
Heuvelman [see Some Things Strange And Sinister] may exist,though some could be
out there not yet classified or,perhaps,even reported for fear of
ridicule.

Sadly,with Man depleting food
sources and polluting waters,not to mention the various pieces of naval
military hardware undersea [there is still reasonably strong evidence –if
circumstantial—that some whale pod beachings may be caused by such equipment] it might just be that numbers of
any existing unknown-to-science species are falling.

Every time a new
“mystery monster” is washed ashore somewhere I check it out as well as I
can. To date,decomposing,partially eaten
whales,angler fish and known species have all been the culprits.

In 2004 I rushed
to Severn Beach,South Gloucestershire,after a phone call from two men who had
been out in a boat and seen a huge silvery,semi-submerged creature moving
slowly not far from the beach. When I
got there I realised that the “mass” was around 70 feet [almost 22m] in
diameter. It was silvery,reflecting
light but tinged with a green colour and to the rear [more seaward] end was
what looked like very long,dark ribbons of matter extending out at least 20
feet [6m]. As I got closer the rush of
adrenalin began to die down as I got a much better view. Two locals walking dogs helped me pull the
“globster” ashore. It was a huge piece
of industrial cellophane with bubble wrap under it and pockets of hair. As it had been in the water some time it had
a greenish slime on parts of it. The
ribbon like material was a mass of seaweed.

It was a danger to
fish and seabirds so at least we got it out of the water and disposed of. The two men who had reported to “thing”
turned up with a trailer attached to their vehicle and a huge water-tank on it
in case the thing needed preserving and taking somewhere. They were very apologetic and felt worse than
I did:I did make them promise that they would
call me if they saw anything odd again –better a wasted journey than lose the
chance to find a new species or odd sea creature.

But Eric Frank
Russell,the science fiction author and,it seems,a devotee of “Forteana” has
left a very annoying legacy in the shape of a 1953 report to origin of which I
still have not tracked down after ten years!

According to
Russell’s account [1]:

Above:Don’t panic! A Jelly-fish but with a diver Photoshopped in
to make it look like a giant. A diver
would have to be insane to get that close to a real giant –though would still not
be large enough to be the 1953 creature.

There are some odd
aspects to this. We know that sharks
will start to sink if they stop swimming but what made this one hang motionless
rather than swim off if it sensed a dangerous predator?

A report published
in the journal Nature describes a remarkable gel found in the shark snouts that
allow them to detect minute temperature changes. Such a sensitivity to such
differences could help lead sharks to thermal fronts in the ocean that are
teeming with quarry. Being
cold-blooded,sharks rely on external water temperatures to keep them warm.

A shark head
contains a number of sensors known as ampullae of Lorenzini that can help the
animal detect electric fields emitted by the earth's magnetic field or by other
sea-dwellers.

There are many
things that affect where shark species are found. One being the temperature of water,the amount
of light available,the amount of salt in the water, or even the water
currents. The kinds and amounts of food
sources available as well as the types of predators all have an effect. Possibly the most important of these factors
is temperature. It is interesting to
remember that sharks cannot stand large changes in temperature. This means that shark species that like cold water stay near the Arctic,while
shark species preferring warm water stay in the tropics. That said,sharks that
like cold water can easily live in warmer places by simply swimming down to the
depths where the water is colder. Many
kinds of sharks live near the water's surface,and a few live deep in the sea.

The diver noted
the sudden drop in temperature prior to the creature rising from the chasm. The shark,in this case a warm-water
dweller,hit suddenly by a wave of cold could become inactive. This would explain the sudden
inactivity. But surely it could have
detected the other creature using its natural senses? It seems quite obvious,the cold wave hit the
shark before it sensed any danger. This
would explain that particular aspect.

The assumption is
that the creature was some huge form of jelly-fish. But this seems almost unlikely. An experienced diver,particularly one expert
enough to depth-dive in new gear would be equally experienced,especially in
those warm waters,to seeing jelly-fish.
Surely he would have said “the biggest jelly-fish I had ever seen –an
acre across in size”? He does not. From this we suppose that it did not look like such a creature,even if
sounding a little like one.

The jelly-fish
tentacles could be described as looking like “cooked noodles” and hang
underneath the body and can be as long as 1 cm to 120 feet [36.5m] which is
longer than,say,a basketball court.
Tentacles can number a few to as many as 800. These tentacles are concentrated around the
mouth because,after the prey is stung by the tentacles they then pull the food
up to be eaten. The stinging cell is located at the top of the tentacle;when
its prey swims by the jellyfish will touch the fish with its tentacles
–automatically killing it.

However,the diver did not mention tentacles and the shark
was seen to convulse after being touched by the upper-side of the creature –an
electrical charge rather than stinger?
The shark was then drawn up into the creature’s mass which does sound
like a jelly-fish or an animal that consumes its food in a similar way. It would be far more comforting to say this
was a phenomenally huge jelly-fish unknown to science but are there similar
reports?

In 1865 a giant
lion's mane jellyfish was found in the Massachusetts Bay. The bell was 7.5 feet[2.28m]
and it's tentacles measured 120 feet[36m] long and a width of 245 ft.[74.6m].

In 1969 two divers reportedly encountered a jellyfish
that they claimed was 150 to 200 ft [45.72
-60.96m] in diameter. There also have
been reports over the years of giant jelly-fish attacking small boats and
pursuing divers.

One of the most
famous encounters,sadly in the days before phone-cams,digi-cams or even
video-cameras,occurred during 1973. The
ship “Kuranda” was sailing toward the Fiji Islands when it hit a storm
and,colliding with a big wave,found a “gigantic jellyfish” . Captain Langley Smith estimated it to have a
weight of around 20 tons and it had ended up spread across the deck to a depth
of two feet[60cms]; it also possessed a fine set of tentacles that the captain
believed would have stretched in excess of 200 feet[60+m] . Sadly,one seaman who was hit by the jelly-fish
tentacles came away with severely burned skin and died from the injury.

The weight of this
jelly-fish also started to push the ship down and an SOS resulted in help from
the vessel “Hercules”. The Hercules crew
managed to get the jelly-fish off the Kuranda with a high pressure hose. Some slime from the jelly-fish was saved and
upon later analysis proved to come from a species known as “Lion's Mane”.

The “Lion's Mane”
jelly-fish [Cyanea capillata] is the
largest known species. Its range is
confined to cold,boreal waters of the Arctic,the northern Atlantic and northern
Pacific. They are seldom found farther south than 42°N latitude,though
a similar jelly-fish,that may well be the same species,are known from the seas
off Australia and New Zealand. The
Arctic Lion's Mane is one of the longest known animals –with the largest
recorded specimen having a bell [body] with a diameter of 7 ft. 6 ins.[2.3m]
and the tentacles reached 120 ft.[36.5 m].

But,again,a diver
should recognise a jelly-fish whether it was huge or not. The photograph in this chapter shows a
photoshopped fake image of a diver near a giant jelly-fish while the other
photograph shows the real size of these giants known as “Nomura's Jelly-fish” [Nemopilema nomurai ]. Even the faked image does not compare in size
to the Kuranda or 1953 creatures.

What I find
interesting is the fact that this creature took the shark. No eyes were seen so how did it know the
shark was there but ignore the diver who stood as motionless as he could be? I do
not believe that this was a lurk,wait and attack incident. I have to wonder whether this thing –whether
an unknown jelly-fish or something else— simply rose into warmer waters to
touch/kill anything that happened to
be around and stunned by the rise of colder water such as fish;the shark was
just in the wrong place at the right time?
The diver was lucky that he saw it before it “saw” him.

I will continue to
try to track down this account’s original source –though it is a mammoth task
with no exact date—and,hopefully,perhaps additional. This really was something strange and
sinister.

Probably the best account comes
from Wales.The full details are given in the book along with photographs of Fragments "A" and "B".

During the 1970s there were said to be three Crash-Retrievals from the Berwyn Mountains
area.In February, 1972, according to a
man who claimed, in 1980, to have been part of an “Alien Craft
Search-and-Retrieve” unit of the Special Air Service [SAS] Regiment, he and six other
men “climbed Berwyn Mountain to see if there were any survivors from an
‘aircraft’ that had been intercepted and shot down by RAF interceptors.‘Mick’ was, apparently, unaware of the task
of the unit he had joined –it was so secret its purpose was only explained to
him after he returned to base.

‘Mick’ and his team reached
wreckage at 00:30 hours and he was shocked to see “a damaged but perfect flying
saucer just as described by George Adamski” (the Contactee).A huge hole was in one side where the saucer
had “been hit by two Sidewinder missiles that had
forced the craft to crash”.Next, several
red canister grenades containing a “gas deadly to alien physiognomy[sic]” were
thrown into the craft through the hole.‘Mick’ was very shocked when a “quite tall, long blond-haired man in
grey-green jump suit” came coughing through the hole in the craft.Captain ‘S’ stepped forward and shot the
alien in the head.

The men were told to “adopt
standard procedure: anything alive- shoot”.Three other aliens, all looking near identical, were found in the
craft.All were dead.The men radioed their base, the men stood
guard until a “massive helicopter” came in and carted off the craft.

Also in 1980, another report
cropped up that we had heard of before and felt it necessary to open a file on.

On the 23rd January, 1974, there
were explosions and strange lights seen over Llandrillo, Corwen, Llanderfel and
several other locations.National TV and
Media reported on the event for a short while but quite soon the “facts”
emerged.People in the area thought that an aircraft
had crashed on the Berwyn
Mountains and anywhere
between one to five witnesses rushed to the area where a “strange light
display” was seen.However, the
witness(es) were stopped by police and very threatening men in civilian
clothing and rudely told to leave the area “or face the consequences”.

Then came the military jets, helicopters
and ground vehicles.Talking to
Ufologist Margaret Fry, and in later correspondence, I pointed out that I did
not believe there had been any crashed UFO.I told her how, in 1982, someone who claimed to have been an RAF Flight
Lieutenant had contacted Franklyn and myself and told us the following story:

“On the 18th January,1974,I and a
colleague were alerted by the

CO [Commanding Officer] that we
might be needed for an IO

[In-Out] job.I can name neither my Army Air Corps unit as
you

have requested or base as both are
still operational.

“We were armed and our job was confirmed on
19th January when

we took an Army unit up past Birmingham and,on the
20th,we

took said units to
Llangollen/Llandrillo.Here one of our
units took

a party of troopers to Porton Down
and another followed later:we

were told that if anyone tried to
open one of the oblong boxes we were

carrying back from Wales he was to
be arrested or,if he resisted,shot.

“A friend claims that he flew a
Sikorsky that took some wreckage and

a ‘gremlin’ to Porton Down.He later suffered a nervous breakdown

after seeing more of the ugly
looking gremlins.”

There are problems here as I
explained to Margaret.The Army Air
Corps is not a part of the RAF.Later, ’KM’
did identify his Commanding Officer and unit/base.I was told that I would put his, Franklyn’s
and my own lives at risk if I dug too deeply.I was later sent “a piece of the alien craft” that had crashed in 1974.

Another account, allegedly from a former
SAS officer, backed up all of ‘KM’s account and I was very suspicious.Margaret was quite excited and out of pure
corteousy, I eventually relented and sent her small pieces of the material sent
me.I received a letter from Margaret in
return stating that “…you will readily see that I must include your bit of
information…in my account for Alien Encounters and International UFO
Reporter…”I telephoned Margaret and
told her that everything ‘KM’ said I had proven to be a lie. I also pointed out that everything had been sent in complete confidentiality.

This, I was told, was me being naive as
that was part of the secret conspiracy plan: to ‘prove’ the account was fake to
hide the truth.

I had no idea how to politely tell Margaret
what I thought of that theory when she dropped a bombshell: she had the
fragments I sent her analyzed and they were made of “unknown metals”. I pointed out that I believed (in fact, knew)
the material was a mix of alloys but I was challenged to explain “why the
elements are unknown on Earth”.

In fact our test results were similar.

Another “UFO fragment” from a 1979 ‘crash’
in the same area was actually granite with iron oxide traces on the
surface.Again, this was from an
“ex-RAF” man with links to a Cheshire UFO group.

In fact, both Margaret and Tony Dodd, a
fellow Ufologist, suggested in articles that the military had advanced warning
of an alien crash of two days.This was
just too much of a coincidence to have been information from anyone other than
‘KM’ himself.

In 1979 the true events of that night were
explained to Franklyn and myself when we met a senior police officer, thanks to
the Home Office, who in 1974 had been involved in the incident.

I imparted some but not all of this to
Margaret Fry but it was dismissed (especially as some information was still
regarded as confidential so I could not give names which, since Margaret did not seem to accept the confidential nature of previous correspondence was probably just as well).

A copy of our report and conclusions on the
incident was sent to both the Home Office and MoD.

Thursday, 22 December 2011

Hello All.
Just a note to remind people that the books Some Things Strange & Sinister, Some More Things Strange & Sinister and The Red Paper:Canids are currently on offer at £10 each. After Christmas they'll go back to their pre-offer price of £15.00 each!

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Below image of the Russian Almasty variety called
Leshiy created by Alexandr Fedenyow,
who was also a graphic artist.

"I’m sorry to inform you that on December 15, 2011, at the
age of 46 died suddenly Alexandr (Sasha) Fedenyov – a ‘troublemaker’ on
the Cryptozoology (Russian) site… Ural’s tracker… Memory Eternal to
him! Went to his mother, returned to his home, after a few hours they
discovered him breathless. The autopsy showed swelling of the lungs
(suffered from asthma). Died December 15, buried on the 17th. Not long
ago he very much wanted to go to the Ural’s tayga where he many times
met with a hominoid, but had no opportunity… And I am very sorry that I
could not help him in this". ~ Igor Bourtsev

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

I'd ask for footage or phtographs of the area in question because I was looking for the "creature" but only saw what looks like a crane "picker" (a large sized version of the little ones you find in arcades and fairs to try to "grab a prize"). Then I realised that's what they were talking about.

There is a point I need to make, yet again, and this time sparked off by Thomas Steenburgs book that I just reviewed on this blog.

I do totally and utterly disagree with some of Steenburgs final words:

"I
sometimes wonder if those who are against the shooting of a sasquatch
really want to see this mystery solved at all. After all, if the
creature is proven to be real, then the puzzle will be over."

Steenburg notes that in his spare time he became a hunter. Not of
Sasquatch but "game". So, the idea of shooting and killing a Sasquatch
to solve a "puzzle" is no big deal to him, though he does point out that
killing a "bunch of them" isn't a good idea.

The idea that "science" must
be satisfied is an utter nonsense in todays world. There are many new
primate species discovered that have not been killed (sadly some have
but by native hunters -the ramifications if it ever turned out that some
biologist or other person had said "get me a dead one and I'll make it
worth your while" well...). Good photographs of new bird and mammal
species and even formerly thought of as extinct species has proven good
enough. Collect feather samples, droppings, hairs, etc., for testing as
well as game trail camera and video footage. Case proved.

I've outlined previously a good, adaptable, way of going about
this with Sasquatch. A combination of still photographs/video footage,
hair samples and even (if possible) faeces and footprints of any animal
means its there and alive. Do research and learn how many newly
discovered species then become endangered or "at risk" because they have
been scientifically proven to exist.

This is the 21st century. To say that a bunch of people sat on their arses in laboratories or universities, even museums, must
be given a body to satisfy them is nonsense. I've seen and met these
people who have knowledge on the subject based on TV programmes, the odd
magazine article or lousy website they just checked on. "No such thing"
they say. Well, prove it. Carry out a year long study, talk to
witnesses and go out and do field research -that is what science is
about. "No. We don't need to -it doesn't exist" they reply. These are
NOT scientists and deserve no respect let alone a sacrifice to them.

There is enough research work carried out by John Green and many others showing that these creatures have food sources and huge geographic areas to wander and live in. So they can survive. Work carried out on genuine Sasquatch plaster casts has shown dermal ridges and other features beyong hoaxers -we can even estimate weight, etc..

Scientifically minded individuals who have gone out into the field have heard vocalisations (scientifically tested and pronounced "unknown"), they have found the Sasquatch "nests" and heard the stone and wood-knocking that shows these creatures have some intelligence. On two occasions I have seen recorded for tv (Snellgrove, etc.) the reactions of these persons as large stones are thrown at them from out of the forestry. There is that look, yes, some of them may have believed Sasquatch was real and done the lab work, but getting stones thrown at you from forestry is unexplainable and a kick of reality to the ass. Unless, of course, some Grizzly has woken up early from hibernation and decided to practice its baseball throwing?

What is the Sasquatch population? we have absolutely no idea. They could be hanging on by a thread as far as existence as a species is concerned. Look at it this way: a mother Sasquatch has young and has to feed them solid food and train them how to forrage.

She is out alone, grubbing around and a hunter sees her. Every hunter we know of has never fired at a Sasquatch because it looks humanlike but say the hunter spotting the female thinks "Goddam. I shoot this one I'll be world famous and my financial problems will be over -I'll have proven these things exist!"

Bang.

Dead Sasquatch. Science has its proof and some young Sasquatch either die through starvation or get predated upon by a bear or even puma. With one shot a vital family group can be wiped out -it's happened with other wild species just this way. As far as we know Sasquatch may even be borderline panda-like in its mating -and we know how well that's gone for them.

Steenburg notes (252):

"The town of Cobalt, Ontario, had a creature in their area for years. Locals gave it the name Old Yellow Top because it had a streak of light-coloured hair on the top of its head. It was around from the late 1950s through the 1960s. The last reported sighting of Old Yellow Top occurred in 1970..."

An animal tends to keep within its own territory and this may be applicable to Sasquatch, though some suggest there may be yearly migrations, that said Chimpanzees and Gorillas tend to inhabit one area but do move around though not long migrations. I think it safe to consider that Sasquatch may do like-wise. A suggested trek from Canada, through the US and down into Florida for instance does not seem likely. Any animal knows its local food sources, watering holes and places of safety and though they may wander around a huge territory it is unlikely they migrate.

Though there is the suggestion, from reports, that Sasquatch might live in family groups we have no idea whether this is a permanent thing or restricted to mating and rearing of young only.

So, if we take it that, factually, we have no idea regarding breeding or population size, then shooting and killing for 'proof' is out of the question. In wildlife research we depend on eye-witness observation of individuals and/or family packs/groups, knowledge we already have on the animal, faeces, hairs and even paw/hoof prints to study. We do not go all hissy and demand something is killed so that we can be satisfied an observer is telling the truth.

There are cases on record of individuals being chased or, in their opinions, warned off by Sasquatch (for whatever reason). "Chases" are usually half-hearted with observers stating that the way the creature moved was so fast it could have caught them at any time -but didn't. Now, let's say that a hunter gets into this situation but knows nothing about Sasquatch -heck, he probably laughed hysterically over his beer every time someone mentioned seeing Sasquatch- and does what he would do naturally if a Grizzly was charging him: aims and fires his rifle.

What does he do if he kills it. Most observers state the Sasquatch looks "almost human" or even "Orang Utan-like" (and they can look quite human). If he has any intelligence then he has a major problem. Yes, he has proof that these things are real and there's money in this. But then it hits him: can he be charged with killing a Sasquatch? If he fobs it off as "I've provided scientific proof at last" what would happen if those scientists prove it near or almost human? Is that murder? Will he be targetted for the rest of his life by "tree-huggers"? Will someone try to kill him in revenge?

Best to just leave the body and let nature take its course. In a month there won't be anything left to be stumbled upon and "dead Sasquatch!" shouted around the world -they did a bullet in the remains...

But then we have hunters who have levelled their rifles at the backs or fronts of Sasquatch. What if they actually pulled the trigger and then realised what they have done?

Same situation as "self defence" shooting.

It is a topic you can debate for hours.

The thing is that this may have happened more than once over the last century and that hunter never went into the woods again and never offered a really good reason why. Self Defence or simple 'sport' killing it is still the death of a creature that could be vital to a population. I'm glad certain areas have legislature or are looking at such to protect these animals rather than issuing proclamations like "Hey , we wanna prove we got Sasquatch: $10,000 to whoever brings a genuine one in for study!"

You want people to stop saying "You've wasted your life, man -they don't exist!" then go all out to gather the evidence but don't even think about killing a creature to prove it. Leave the population to continue and think of the best ways to prove your case -a miniature transponder fitted into a dart that can penetrate or stick to a Sasquatch so you can follow it , .22 slugs have allegedly been fired into Sasquatch with no noticable affect so a dart implanting a tracker, even if only in thick skin is no problem.

There are other ways -some including transponders placed inside food. Sasquatch want to steal from a cabin then hang your salmon/meat up outside with the transponder in it. Yes, after a few days it'll be passed through the Sasquatch digestive system BUT you'll have tracked/plotted its route for a while and the device will lead you to Sasquatch faeces!

I would genuinely sooner let Sasquatch remain a "mystery" than prove it existed with a body and all that entailed. Let the Sasquatch hunters/scientists stamp their feet. Why should we, as humans, demand that any species be killed just so that we can say "I told you so"?

It is definitely wrong to demand a body -if a trucker or motorist hits and kills one okay. That is an accident but hoping that one is killed that way so you can have a clear conscience...?

I got this book in the post yesterday and gave myself a day off to read it.

It was quite an interesting read and there was only one thing I found annoying.

Steenburg prints the Q & As he has gotten from interviews after
he has given us a brief sighting account. In the Q & A section he then writes what the observers saw in their own words. For a book on rarely covered sightings this is annoying. I really do not want to read about the observation three times in a short space.

Better to give the date and time and allow the observers statements to give the detail. If there are odd aspects such as, in one observation, a witness reporting large stand-up ears then you can write "I questioned him on this..." and publish the relevant lines.

Better still, if you want to present the word-for-word statements by observers put them in appendices at the back of the book so those interested can go through them later.

And there were other aspects that I found distracting froim the gist of the book. Observer Joseph Verhovany apparently had/has an accent that made him talk in broken English. So some things he said were not understood -"discreprancies" popped up such as finding out part-way through an account that Verhovany had dog(s) with him. In the Q &A Steenburg writes that he cannot understand something Verhovany says. This made the whole observation being recorded pointless.

I am guessing that Steenburg recorded these Q & As on a dictaphone? The procedure should be, as police will tell you, record on tape and on paper so that this does not happen. A standard basic report form might also be helpful. In the past, when I've come across witness to events who do not speak English as a first language, I get them to give their accounts in their mother-tongue so it can be translated into English later.

But I'm now guilty of distracting myself from the purpose of Steenburgs book. We hear time-and-again, about Bigfoot/Sasquatch in the United States. We hear repeatedly, though to a much lesser degree about the Yeti. However, South America and Canada get very little coverage.

Steenburg is trying to balance out the record and in his work, as he notes, sticks to the Canadian (his) side of the border and this is good. It means that an investigator will get to know the country and reports from it well and that means getting into a good position to know the hot-spots, etc., etc..

Firstly, one thing I have never seen in documentary programmes, apart from the Patterson-Gimlin event, is the mention of breasted Sasquatch. Albert Ostman, if you believe his account, mentions female Sasquatch but that is really it in general. Steenburg shows that female Sasquatch ARE reported and that Canada has some interesting reports. Reports that I think in certain cases are just as important, if not more so, than certain oft-cited US events.

So, yes, world, Canada does have Sasquatch sightings.

My negative points are raised from years of investigation and the need to get facts. Some will argue that this is what Steenburg is doing. Fair enough but I think the same can be done by the appendices idea. Did the book put me off? Nope. I'm now going looking for Steenburgs other books!

Sunday, 18 December 2011

If I so much as mention Bigfoot/Sasquatch or even unknown sea creatures to
people I meet I get that look. You know the one -a slight wry smile with
that look of "he seemed quite normal earlier!"

But then, if I go into a sudden lecture on history I can get the same look
-or worse. An acquaintance once telephoned me and asked what I was
"up to?" I replied: "I'm currently re-reading Julius
Caesar:Man, Soldier & Tyrant by J. F. C. Fuller-" before I'd even
finished there was the laugh, though it was quickly followed by a "Well, I
shouldn't be surprised really!"

I am not just interested in the "established" history. I am
fascinated by the “Lost” history. For
instance, that Irish sailors reached the Americas long before the Vikings
and many others. Bristol
was one of the most important ports in Medieval times and our founding father
traders had secret sea route maps but where did Bristol merchants get their maps? Why are pineapples depicted in Ancient Egypt
and also in a mural at Pompei –they are New World fruits in the Old World?

Then we have all the lost technology from the past (do not even as a
joke mention “Ancient Astronauts” to me.
Man is creative and inventive and we do not need to pull aliens into
everything from the building of the pyramids to the Easter
Island heads (we know
through archaeology how these were built).
Al Andalus (or Andalusia) was ruled by “The Moors” for 800 years after
moving into the Iberian Peninsula around the 8th
century. They quite literally
re-introduced civilisation to Europe.
Mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, architecture and even medicine was far more
advanced than that in the rest of Europe –people travelled to Al Andalus (where
religions were not in conflict) to learn these skills. What the Spanish later did in their
Reconquista was set Europe back hundreds of
years.

There is so much to learn out there and when people say “Who cares –that’s
in the past!” I just have to look at them and ask why they are alive!

But then we have those old questions regarding ghosts, demons and the
like. According to the church it has not
yet decided upon the ghost and ghostly.
Now, if after over 2000 years of Christian religion, full of ghostly
events and practically based upon some ghostly events, hasn’t yet decided it is
only because it simply just has not bothered or, even more likely, coming upon
events it cannot explain it decided that it “never happened” or to talk about
it is “blasphemy” or might incur the attentions and mischief of the Devil so “be
quiet”. The Devil –another Church
creation that doesn’t appear in the Bible.

Growing up you hear things. I once lived in a house in St. Werburghs, Bristol, where the back room overlooking the Mina Road
Park had a very weird
feeling. As kids my brother, Peter and I
had this as our bedroom. I have never
ever slept well and so I got used to the huge glowing eyes looking in through
the window at night (an owl) and how things mysteriously moved about the room
during the day (windows left open during the day and a jackdaw popped in –I caught
it one day moving things and I don’t know which of us looked more surprised!).

But the room had a very strange feel and it was where I had my first
hypnagogic event (a waking dream): the dark silhouette of a traditionally
dressed witch with full high pointed hat –I even through a book at ‘her’ as she
moved past the bed. My gran did wonder
why the book was on the floor when she came in to wake us up in the
morning. My mother and father had this
bedroom at one point but my mother flatly refused to stay in it –even during
the day she would not go into it unless someone was with her and she never said
why.
One morning we heard a “thump” and my gran and parents rushed upstairs to
the room in question. My brother had
been knocked out having hit his head on the ceiling. “He must have been
bouncing on the bed” was my fathers explanation: yet we had not heard a sound
before which we should have done had he been bouncing on the bed. Also, which I realised even then, he must
have been performing Olympic style leaps to hit the high ceiling!
Eventually, a lodger, Fred, moved into that room. Within three years or so
he was taken to a mental hospital but we had all realised this was inevitable –sadly,
people deteriorating mentally is no rarity.
Then the new lodger moved in.
Derek was young, bright and breezy and had no trouble with “the room”.

I could go on and on but throughout my formative years I encountered one
thing after another that some might call “ghostly” –witnessed just by myself or
with others. Our home in Knowle, Bristol,
had thrown up a few oddities and one evening we were sat around and I looked at
the Christmas decorations as the latest “event” was mentioned. On TV someone
was talking about “the devil” so I said: “If the devil exists let him pop a red
balloon!”

“Bang!”

A red balloon popped. I thought it
was hysterically funny.

Even in Germany
the ghosts and ghostly kept popping up.
So, that I was reading books by Elliott O’Donnell, Harry Price and
others by the time I was thirteen should not surprise anyone.

One day, after school, I went into the Greystoke Avenue Library, in
Southmead, Bristol,
and looked through their “Older readers” section. In those days, if under 16 you weren’t really
allowed to venture over to the adult section but the librarians let me. I had read most of the paranormal/ghost books
but saw two I had not read before. I was
in a hurry and on leaving the library discovered I had accidentally picked up a
copy of Brisley Le Poer Trench’ The
Flying Saucer Story. I was annoyed.
I could not take the book back until next day (lending policy).

On that day I read The Flying Saucer
Story and much more than forty years later I’m still suffering the results
of that read! It was only later that I heard from my parents that before I was
born they had been on the farm in Germany and seen a large ball of
light (UFO). So it was fate!

And wildlife. I have never had a problem in this area. While in Sevier Street, St.
Werburghs, I looked out after a Summer rain shower to see an approximately six
inches (15 cms) long caterpillar of some type –it was literally covered in
long, fawn colour hair so it looked like a long mop. It moved up the wall between the outhouse and
coal shed and to this day I have never been able to identify what it was.

In Germany,
while collecting wood for the fire in woods just outside Dalborn, my father
about six feet ahead of me with the wood-cart, there was a sudden silence. I
turned to my left to see a young fallow deer, a true “bambi”, looking at me
curiously. Some ten feet (3m) beyond it, in amongst the trees, stood the mother
also looking at me. This lasted some time before we all mutually moved off.

My grand mother had lived in Dalborn since the Second World War but had
never seen any hares. She was a bit
miffed when I returned from a walk to describe watching groups of hares and
even hare ‘boxing matches’!

When I was a bit older I did walk through the forestry and hear an odd
noise. I looked down and saw wild boar piglets and at that point I broke into a
cold sweat because I became aware and then saw the sow. She stared at me as I slowly moved away, walking
backwards and not taking my eyes off her.
She never charged me.

On one holiday, as a family, we went with our grand-father to pick
dandelions for his giant rabbits. The
route was a familiar one to us –out through the farm orchard, down the tractor
path and then along a basic road between cornfields and the forest. As we
passed a tree stump a good few feet from the forestry my grand-father casually
mentioned that the stump was where he had seen “the sturm-geist” (storm
ghost/spirit). Now, Opa had suffered a stroke so his vocabulary was good but
not great –he was still “re-learning” full speech. The storm ghost had an ugly face and was
covered in hair and when he saw it the beasty leaped from the trunk and into
the forestry. “It sounds like a chimp or
monkey of some kind” I said. Opa smiled
that smile: “No. We don’t have monkeys here.” I thought “We don’t have monkeys
but we do have storm spirits!” Of
course, Opa was probably thinking “He thinks we have monkeys in the
forest?”

Opa had been alone that time but when we were all together on the rough
track one day, right next to where the sturm-geist had been seen, he said “Look
there!” All we saw was a glossy black, hair-covered back leap into the coniferous
forestry. If you’ve seen black furred/feathered creatures you’ll know that in
bright sunlight the fur/feather has that sort of brownish, even purplish
glint. So did this beasty. I rushed forward determined to see what it was
but the forestry was so wild at that point I could only get five feet ort so –but
we all heard it crash through the branches of the trees.

My cousin later threw almost an hissy-fit as we explained the event. I have no idea why he was so vehement in his
dismissal of the sighting. His
explanation? It was a “fishing bird.” I
was puzzled having never heard of a “Fishing bird” –I found out it was a
cormorant. I’ve seen so many cormorants over the years (we have them in Bristol) that I know it
was not that we saw. And besides, our
critter was leaping not flying.

On another occasion I observed what I thought was a badger emerging from
forestry across some fields.

Everyone,
including the local ranger, assured me that there were no badgers in the area.
A few nights later I got up to go to the bedroom window because it was hot and
sticky and the midges were being noisy pests. I heard a noise in the flower
bed, about three feet (90 cms) below the window. I looked down and there, looking up at me,
was what for all the world looked like a fluffy black fox with white facial
markings –almost raccoon like. I tried
to reach for the camera at my bedside that had a flash on it and trying to do
so without taking my eyes off the critter.
My hand knocked the camera and I tried to grab it –when I turned back
the animal was gone.

Next day..there was that look
again in amongst chuckles as I explained what I had seen. I was dreaming it
seems. No such animal existed. Alright, now I knew what people reporting a UFO
or Sasquatch felt like!

Back in England
I went through all my books and –there it was.
Fluffy black fox with white markings!
But it was not a fox, rather it was a raccoon-like dog which is a rather
primitive wild canid that can hibernate and they were kept by fur farmers
before escapes in the 1930s and, of course, during the war. I had seen one the furthest west they had
moved (though that was not known at the time.
Next year I took the book and showed everyone I could in Dalborn. Not a single odd look just the very, very
annoying response of “Yes. You saw one –so what?” I was sure this was a conspiracy.
So you can imagine I thought everyone considered me a nut-case. However, one day my aunt said to my mother: “Ask
Herr Professor if he wants coffee.” I
looked around and she was looking at me.
I had no idea up to this point that the family called me “Herr Professor”
or that some of the locals were also referring to me in that way. Apparently, my constant nose-in-books, asking
questions and checking everything from insects, unusual plants and animals out
had earned me a reputation!

The books, of course, varied. I had
been introduced to Brinsley Le Poer Trench (later Lord Clancarty) and his
outlook on “flying saucers” and I had read of Price and O’Donnell and their
ghost hunting experiences. My big heroes
were later added to: Major Donald E. Keyhoe and his take on the flying saucers
and Ivan T. Sanderson who covered many topics but then, he had travelled and
lived in much of the world and seen and investigated much. Sanderson had introduced me to underwater
UFOs (USOs), the Patterson-Gimlin film and, with Abominable Snowmen:Legend Come To Life, set me on another avenue of
study.

I corresponded with George Haas of the Bigfoot Bay Area Group, Dimitri
Bayanov in Russia on the Almas and many others covering subjects from hairy
hominids, sea creatures, UFOs, ghosts, astronomy, aeronautics and beyond. I
investigated my first UFO when I was around 15 years of age and joined many
different UFO groups –I even famously fought with two Men In Black characters
on my doorstep (quite a few witnesses).
I have chased (on foot) UFOs at Warminster, on roof tops, along roads -and
nearly crashed twice. I never ever
understood why people wanting to find “the truth” just stood on the spot not
daring to face the phenomena face-on.

The same applies with ghosts or even unusual creatures: you do not endanger
yourself but you don’t just stand there saying “Well, that was a mystery wasn’t
it?”

And those over-sized “coffee table” books full of photographs and full
colour illustrations did not help. “Is
this true?” I’d ask myself. How could I
trust some stranger who just wrote this account or offered a photograph without
checking it all out myself? Sadly, those
huge books are a thing of the past to a degree.
But when I kept being asked about my “officially unofficial” UFO work, or my
work as a wildlife consultant to UK police forces and so on I got
fed up. I decided to put it all (well,
some of it) in writing. Some Things Strange & Sinister was
my look at ghosts, poltergeists, UFOs, local and world-wide mysteries and,
where-ever I could I gave an explanation.
Explaining something away is not being
a sceptical debunker. Only after you’ve
looked at all the possible explanations can you say this was a hoax, that was
misinterpretation or, sorry Charles Fort, that never happened.

Dead aquatic creatures washed up on UK shores as well as on Tanzanian
shores. Alleged ‘mermaid/man’ carcasses and so much more.

I could, like others, just sit back and say this was all real. No need to disbelieve. An easier life by far
but then that would mean believing that real flying saucers had crashed at Aurora and Roswell.
I’m not that dumb. No, I have to look into these things.

In some cases it has taken 20, 30 and even 35 years to get to the bottom of
an event/case but to me that is worth it. Now I know what the facts are. And I need to point out that I am not a “Cryptozoologist”, a “Ufologist”,
a “Fortean” or any other pseudo-ologist!
I am a naturalist/researcher-investigator. That’s it.
When I wrote my second book, Some More
Things Strange & Sinister I put together a lot of what I had learnt as
a naturalist, historian and researcher-investigator. From gorillas in the UK before they were actually scientifically
discovered, primate historical mysteries and oddities, tales of all sorts of
wildmen from the United States,
England and Europe.

I looked at the mystery of a strange city said to appear in Alaskan skies
each year. Unlike other writers and ‘researchers’
over the years I went out and found the quoted source and the oft-mentioned
photograph of the city-in-the-sky.

The so called “Girt Dog Of Ennerdale” which, in 1810, killed sheep and was
eventually killed. Everyone has written
on it in the “mystery big cat field” or in cryptozoology and Forteana. It’s been a werewolf, a vampire beast, a
hyena a UFO creature of some kind and even a tiger, lion or a Tasmania thylacine (the current
cryptozoological favourite explanation).
I went out and got the, again, oft-quoted sources and found that there
is no great mystery and definitely no big cat or thylacine. The facts are in
the original sources.

The Beast of Gevaudan –again, so many silly explanations but going back to
original sources and corresponding with the French natural history museums, the
explanation is clear –and there are later incidents correlating with “the beast”
events.
Sea creatures and so-called “flying light wheels” emerging from the sea, the
Great Serpent of Carthage, mystery snakes and so much more and all pulling
together everything I have learnt since I was a child.

The Red Paper: Canids covered
Ennerdale but also the natural history of foxes in the UK from the
point where they were going extinct through to mass importation of foxes for
hunting. Wolves roaming the British
countryside long after they became extinct here, jackals, coyotes, arctic foxes
and much more –the hunts, where they came from and cases never before reported
on. One naturalist called it “an
explosive book!”
I try to make each book, no matter what the subject matter, interesting for
the reader whether they are UFO or cryptozoology buffs or simply curious. Photographs, maps, charts and much more,
though sadly, the idea of full colour plates is way to expensive. To think. To
learn and enquire into the strange, the unusual or even history is what makes
us humans.

Before I shift off this mortal coil I want to pass on this information and keep
delving into things that grab my attention…and try to carry on earning some
kind of living!